ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey has withdrawn its ambassador to Bangladesh, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday, following the execution of an Islamist party leader this week for genocide and other crimes committed during a 1971 war of independence.

Moulana Motiur Rahman Nizami, chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh's biggest Islamic Political Party and an alliance of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party, waves to his supporters during a rally protesting against Western newspapers that published cartoons on Prophet Mohammad in Dhaka February 11, 2006. REUTERS/Rafiqur Rahman

Bangladesh on Wednesday hanged Motiur Rahman Nizami, head of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, for genocide, rape and orchestrating the massacre of intellectuals during the war.

International human rights groups say the procedures of the Bangladeshi tribunal that sentenced Nizami fell short of international standards. The government rejects that, and the trials have been supported by many Bangladeshis. In Turkey, there have been a handful of protests against the execution in recent days.